Smart-device communication in response to event

ABSTRACT

A smart device communication system and method are disclosed. The smart device communication system is based on an Internet of Things (IoT) device attached to or in vicinity to an object. In response to an occurrence related to the object, the IoT device sends an event signal that is received by one or more community-capable IoT devices that are geographically co-located with the object. The community-capable IoT device(s) respond by taking one or more actions in response to receiving the event signal. The IoT device and the community-capable IoT device(s) are not co-owned.

BACKGROUND

The concept of combining computers and networks to remotely monitor andcontrol devices has been around for some time. The Internet of Things(IoT) is a network of devices, including, but not limited to, vehiclesand home appliances, that contain electronics, software, sensors, andactuators, allowing these things to connect, interact, and exchangedata. The IoT involves extending Internet connectivity beyond devicessuch as smartphones and computers, to a variety of traditionallynon-Internet-enabled physical devices and everyday objects, allowingthem to be remotely controlled and/or monitored.

The recent interest in IoT by a diverse audience, including consumers,is driven by several factors. The widespread adoption and decreased costof Internet Protocol (IP) based networking, the increase in computingpower, lower price points, and lower power consumption of devices,cutting-edge manufacturing advances, allowing miniaturization of devicesthat are highly capable, advances in data analytics, and advances incloud computing have contributed to IoT's popularity and focus. Withonly minimal or no human interaction, IoT devices are generally known togenerate, exchange, and consume data and they may connect to remoteservers or other cloud-based devices for data collection, management,and analysis.

IoT is available to divergent industry sectors, from traffic and weathercontrol, autonomous vehicles, smart homes, consumer electronics,wearables, security, farming, fitness, manufacturing standardization andautomation, mining, seismic monitoring, smart metering, flightnavigation, shipment tracking, and so on.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a smart device communication system andmethod, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B are block diagrams illustrating alternativemechanisms for implementing software for the smart communication devicesystem of FIG. 1, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating possible responses by acommunity-capable IoT device in response to receiving an event signal,according to some embodiments.

FIG. 4 is an illustration of the smart device communication of FIG. 1 inresponse to a car break-in, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 5 is an illustration of the smart device communication of FIG. 1 inresponse to an attempted assault of a person, according to someembodiments.

FIG. 6 is an illustration of the smart device communication of FIG. 1 inresponse to a vehicle getting a parking ticket, according to someembodiments.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating method operations of the smartdevice communication of FIG. 1, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an Internet of Things network in which thesmart device communication of FIG. 1 may operate, according to someembodiments.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of an IoT system from which the smart devicecommunication of FIG. 1 may be initiated, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 10 is an embodiment of an exemplary computing architecture in whichone or more embodiments of the smart device communication of FIG. 1 mayoperate, according to some embodiments.

The same numbers are used throughout the disclosure and the figures toreference like components and features. Numbers in the 100 series referto features originally found in FIG. 1, numbers in the 200 series referto features originally found in FIG. 2, and so on.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In accordance with the embodiments described herein, a smart devicecommunication system and method are disclosed. The smart devicecommunication system is based on an Internet of Things (IoT) deviceattached to or in vicinity to an object. When the object is tamperedwith in some way, the IoT device sends an event signal that is receivedby one or more community-capable IoT devices that are geographicallyco-located with the object. The community-capable IoT device(s) respondby taking one or more actions in response to receiving the event signal.The IoT device and the community-capable IoT device(s) are not co-owned.Optionally, the IoT device also notifies a mobile phone or otherhand-held device that is co-owned by the owner of the object of theevent.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a smart device communication system 100,according to some embodiments. The smart device communication system 100features an object 102 that has in its vicinity an IoT device 104. TheIoT device 104, based on an action involving the object 102, sends anevent signal, which causes one or more community-capable IoT devices 114to respond, as described in more details below. Optionally, anotification signal is also received by a hand-held or other type ofmobile device 112.

IoT device 104 features a sensor 106 and an actuator 108, although theIoT device may include multiples of each. Similarly, IoT devices 114each show one sensor 116 and one actuator 118, though each may have morethan one. The sensors are detection devices that sense physicalinformation such as movement, temperature, flow, and so on. Theactuators are devices that perform some action, such as causing a lightto turn on or a horn to blast. The IoT devices may have softwareresiding on these devices that perform some operation in response to thesensor sensing, such as invoking one of the actuators. Smartphones areexamples of IoT devices that have resident software. In other examples,the software that is reacting to the sensors and invoking the actuatorsresides outside the IoT device.

In some embodiments, the IoT device 104 and the one or morecommunity-capable IoT devices 114 are able to communicate with oneanother by being connected to a cloud service or cloud 126. The cloudservice 126 may be an Internet cloud service, a WiFi connection in thehome, a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), a Wireless Wide Area Network(WWAN), a proprietary network, and so on.

Also connected to the cloud 126 is a cloud server, also referred toherein as a server 128. A server in an office provides security,control, and performance for computing devices connected to the serverin the office. A cloud server similarly provides security, control, andperformance for devices connected to a cloud service. Although it may bephysically disposed in the office, the cloud server also may physicallyreside elsewhere, in a virtualized environment that is managed by thecloud service. Additional servers (not shown) may be connected to thecloud service 126 and may provide additional functionality to the IoTdevices.

The smart device communication system 100 features two-way communicationchannels 120 and 122 between respective IoT devices 104 and 114 and thecloud 126, a two-way communication channel 130 between the cloud 126 andthe cloud server 128, and an optional two-way communication channel 124between the cloud and the hand-held/mobile device 112. There may also bedirect communication between the IoT device 104 and the one or morecommunity-capable IoT devices 114, via channel 132. In some embodiments,these channels of communication are wireless transmission channels, andmay include WiFi, Bluetooth, Near Field Communication (NFC), and othertypes of communication.

In some embodiments, the sensors and actuators of the IoT devices inFIG. 1 are managed by software not residing on the IoT devices, butaccessible via the cloud service 126. FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B are simplifiedblock diagrams featuring smart device communication software 200A and200B, respectively, according to some embodiments. In FIG. 2A, smartdevice communication software 200A is stored on the cloud server 128; inFIG. 2B, the smart device communication software 200B is stored on theIoT device 104 associated with the object 102. Hereinafter, the softwareis known as smart device communication software 200A, 200B, or simply200. In both implementations, the software 200 communicates with theother IoT devices by way of the cloud service 126 to effect a desiredresponse.

In FIG. 2A, the smart device communication software 200A, communicatingthrough the cloud service 126, may receive an event signal 204 from oneor more sensors, such as the sensor 106 on the IoT device 104 invicinity to the object 102 (FIG. 1). The smart device communicationsoftware 200 may issue a response signal 206 to activate one or moreactuators, such as the actuators 118 of the community-capable IoTdevices 114 (FIG. 1). Optionally, the smart device communicationsoftware 200 may issue a notification signal 208 in response to theevent signal, to be received by a hand-held or mobile device, such asthe mobile device 112 (FIG. 1).

In FIG. 2B, the smart communication software 200B receives the eventsignal 204 from one or more sensors on the IoT device 104 in vicinity tothe object (FIG. 1). Because the software is coupled with the sensor(s)on the IoT device, no event signal is issued. Rather, the software 200B,resident upon the IoT device 104, sends a response signal directly tothe community-capable IoT device(s) 114 over communication channel(s)132. Similarly, the optional notification signal 208 may be issueddirectly to the hand-held/mobile device 112 by way of its owncommunication channel 204. In an embodiment, communication with thehand-held/mobile device 112 is achieved via a cellular network.

In some embodiments, both the IoT device 104 and the cloud server 128 ofFIG. 1 may include some software elements and the smart devicecommunication software 200 may be distributed between these devices.Further, the single cloud server 128 illustrated in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2Amay consist of more than one server, and the multiple servers may bedisposed in geographically disparate locations.

In addition to generate response 206 and, optionally, notification 208signals, in response to receiving the event signal 204, the smart devicecommunication software 200 also features machine learning capability202, in some embodiments. The machine learning 202 enables the softwareto become smarter as more data is gathered over time. For example, ifthe IoT device is located in a person's vehicle, the smart devicecommunication software 200 may be invoked when the person has left thevehicle and is not currently residing in the vehicle. The machinelearning 202 of the software may be able to determine this informationbased on the weight of the person, using facial recognition, or usingfingerprints.

With reference to both FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, depending on what the object102 is, the IoT device 104 may or may not be electrically connected tothe object. The sensor 106 of the IoT device 104 may be able to detect atampering of the object without being electrically connected thereto.Upon notice of a tampering of the object 102, the sensor 106 sends theevent signal 204, via communication channel, to the cloud 126, where itis received by the cloud server 128. The smart device communicationsoftware 200 thus sends a response signal 206, again through the cloud126, to invoke an actuator 118 of one or more community-capable IoTdevice 114.

In some embodiments, both the event signal 204 and the response signal206 are sent using Bluetooth, Near-Field Communication (NFC), Zigbee,Z-wave, or another form of communication between geographicallyco-located devices, with the channels being two-way communication. Thecommunication aspect of the IoT device is described in more detail inconjunction with FIG. 9, below.

The community-capable IoT device 114 may also be referred to as acommunity-aware or community-responsive IoT device. In some embodiments,a community-capable IoT device 114 is an IoT device that, when receivinga response signal from a not commonly owned IoT device, the IoT deviceautomatically activates its one or more actuators. In some embodiments,the response signal 206 is received from a geographically co-located IoTdevice. Not commonly owed, or not co-owned, means that the IoT deviceactivating its one or more actuators is owned by someone other than theowner of the IoT device in vicinity of the object 102 that caused theevent signal to be sent, in some embodiments.

The community-capable aspect of the IoT device may be an opt-in featureof the device, in which the owner of the IoT device invokes a setting toenable the device to be community-capable. Or, the IoT device may besold as community-capable by default, such that the owner of the device,upon purchase, would explicitly disable the community capability of itsrecent purchase if the owner does not want its device to becommunity-capable. In some embodiments, the community capability of theIoT device is marketed to the consumer as providing community benefits,as illustrated in FIG. 4, FIG. 5, and FIG. 6, below, in addition to theoriginal capabilities/features that make the IoT device desirable to theconsumer.

Although two community-capable IoT devices 114 are illustrated in thesmart device communication system 100 of FIG. 1, there may be one ormany of them. The one or more actuators 118 activated by thecommunity-capable IoT device(s) 114 may vary, depending on the eventthat triggers the response. Some embodiments are described in FIG. 4,FIG. 5, and FIG. 6, below.

Optionally, the event signal 204 may trigger a notification signal 208to the hand-held or mobile device 112. The smart device communicationdevice software 200, upon receipt of the event signal 204, generates thenotification signal 120 to be received by the hand-held or other mobiledevice 112. The operations of the smart device communication software200 of the IoT device 104 are described further in the flow diagram ofFIG. 7, below.

There are several different ways in which IoT devices may be incommunication with one another. The IoT devices may be in device-todevice communication. One example is a smart light bulb and light switchthat is part of a home automation system. Communication between thesedevices can be achieved using small data packets at relatively low datarates. These data packets are sent through a wireless network, which maybe the WiFi network in a residential home, and the packets are receivedby the smart light bulb, causing it to be turned on or off. Proprietaryprotocols, such as Bluetooth, Zigbee, or Z-wave, may enable such smallpacket/low data rate communication.

Another way two IoT devices may be in communication is known asdevice-to-cloud communication. Each IoT device connects to an Internetcloud service such as an Application Service Provider (ASP) to exchangedata and control message traffic. How the IoT device connects to the ASPmay be by wired Ethernet, WiFi, and other means. Examples of IoT devicesusing such services include smart thermostats, in which data istransmitted to the ASP for energy consumption analysis and, as a furtherbenefit, the smart thermostat can be accessed via mobile or otherhand-held devices.

Another way IoT devices may be connected is known as thedevice-to-gateway model. A local gateway device operates as anintermediary between the device and the cloud service. For example, thelocal gateway device may be the mobile phone or other hand-held devicerunning an app to communicate with the IoT device and relay data fromthe device to a cloud service. Personal fitness apps are examples of thedevice-to-gateway model. Or there may be a hub that serves as a localgateway to all the smart devices in the home.

A back-end data sharing model is also a way in which IoT devices may beconnected, enabling data from multiple IoT devices to be exported andsubsequently aggregated and analyzed. The smart device communicationsystem 100 of FIG. 1 may operate in one or more of these connectionarchitectures.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating possible responses by acommunity-capable IoT device in response to receiving an event signal,according to some embodiments. The event signal 204 is issued by asensor such as the sensor 106 on the IoT device 104 in vicinity to theobject 102 (FIG. 1). In response, the smart device communicationsoftware 200 invokes the actuator 204, as described above, in generatingthe response 206.

Several responses 206 are shown. The event signal 204 may, for example,cause a camera to record a video 308, ping a mobile device 310, activatea strobe light 312, or lock doors or windows 314. Many of the responseswill make sense in the context in which they are invoked. The list ofresponses 206 is not exhaustive but covers a range of possibilitiesenabled by IoT devices.

FIG. 4, FIG. 5, and FIG. 6 depict three scenarios in which the smartdevice communication system 100 of FIG. 1 may be invoked, according tosome embodiments. For example, FIG. 4 depicts a scenario 400 in which anattempted break-in of a vehicle 402 takes place. Several cars aredepicted on a street, both to the left and the right of the centermedian of a road. The vehicle 402 includes an IoT device 422, such as isdescribed in FIG. 1, above, with the capability to detect tampering ofan object. In this example, the object is a window of the vehicle 402.

Different types of IoT devices are present in the scenario 400. Fivevehicles 402, 404, 406, 408, and 410, and one flood light 412 includeIoT devices thereon, and all IoT devices in this example are consideredcommunity-capable. The IoT devices in this example are alsogeographically co-located to the IoT device of the vehicle 402.

Vehicle 404 includes a camera actuator 414, located at the rear of thevehicle. Vehicle 406 includes an automatic door-locking or unlockingactuator 416. Vehicle 408 includes a light actuator 418, which may bethe vehicle front lights, rear lights, interior lights, parking lights,or all of the lights, or may be a separate light actuator that is partof a removable IoT device that happens to be inside the vehicle. Vehicle410 includes an alarm actuator 420, which could alternatively be a bell,a whistle, a horn, or other device that makes an audible noise. Thealarm actuator 420 may be part of the vehicle alarm or horn system ormay be a separate noise actuator that happens to be inside the vehicle410. The flood light 412 has an attached IoT device including anactuator 422 that turns the flood light on or off.

The scenario 400 begins by the IoT device 422 in the vehicle 402detecting a break or attempted break of the object window (occurrencedetection) and sends out an event signal. In some embodiments, the smartdevice communication system response is immediate. The camera in thevehicle 404 begins recording. The doors in the vehicle 406 automaticallylock. The lights in the vehicle 408 begin flashing. The alarm in thevehicle 410 begins blaring. And, the flood lamp 412 turns on. In otherwords, all geographically co-located actuators automatically respond tothe sensor 106 detection. With this much activity surrounding thebreak-in event, it is possible to imagine that the nefarious actors maywant to leave the scene quickly.

In some embodiments, the smart device communication system 100 furtherenables the notification signal 208 to be sent to the mobile or otherhand-held device of the owner of IoT device 422, which would generallybe the owner of the vehicle 402. This could be useful when, for example,the vehicle 402 is parked outside the owner's home.

In some embodiments, the owner of the vehicle 402 may be able to accessthe data from the camera actuator 414 in the adjacent vehicle 404. Thesmart device communication software 200 may send a data request to acloud server associated with the IoT device 414 (which may be adifferent server than the one on which the software resides) anddownload any recorded data associated with the occurrence.

In some embodiments, the IoT device 422 that includes window breakdetection (and possibly other capabilities) is not activated until theowner has locked the vehicle 402. This prevents the IoT device fromreacting to an occurrence that is associated with normal use of thevehicle, such as opening or shutting the door, children banging on thewindow, and so on. As such, the IoT device 422 may be part of anintegrated smart vehicular system.

The machine learning 202 of the smart device communication software 200may be useful in this scenario. The IoT device 422 may, for example,know that the person entering the vehicle is the owner based oninformation such as bodyweight, facial recognition, or fingerprints. Themachine learning 202 may also be able to detect whether the owner is invicinity of the vehicle by sending a Bluetooth signal to detectwearables on the owner, a smartphone in possession of the owner, and soon.

FIG. 5 presents another scenario, an attempted assault, in which thesmart device communication system 100 may be useful. Again, all IoTdevices in this example are community-capable and geographicallyco-located. In the scenario 500, a man 502 with a panic button 504 inhis possession, an IoT device, is walking his dog on a street. Suddenly,three strangers 506, 508, and 510 approach the man 502 from differentdirections. The man 502 activates his panic button 504, which itselfincludes a noise alert. However, because of the smart devicecommunication system 100, the panic button IoT device also sends out anevent signal, which causes the lights in vehicle 408 to begin flashing,the alarm in the vehicle 410 to begin blaring, and the flood light 412to turn on. Where the vehicles are parked in front of homes or offices,these audible and visible actions may cause people to come outside toinvestigate. This and the ensuing light and noise from geographicallyco-located IoT-enabled devices might just be enough to cause thestrangers to run away and stop the attempted assault.

In the scenario 500, the panic button may be thought of as both theobject and the IoT device. No sensor is detecting tampering of theobject, the panic button. Instead, the activation of an actuator insidethe panic button, an alarm, sets the subsequent events in motion. In thecar break-in scenario 400, the sensor operation (occurrence detection)automatically triggers subsequent action, whereas in the attemptedassault scenario, the activation of an actuator by the human triggersthe subsequent action by geographically co-located devices. The smartdevice communication system 100 is flexible enough to enable eitherautomatic sensor or explicit actuator enabling to transmit an eventsignal, thus causing the automatic activation of geographicallyco-located and community-enabled responses.

FIG. 6 presents a third scenario 600, in this case, a non-threateningscenario that nevertheless can cause undue expense for vehicle owners. Aparking attendant is cruising the vicinity of vehicles 602, 604, 606,608, and 610, looking for either illegally parked vehicles or those withexpired parking passes. Vehicle 602 includes the occurrence detectionIoT device 620. The occurrence that triggers the event in this scenario600 is the issuance of a ticket by the parking attendant, who places theviolation notice on the window of the vehicle 602. The sensor of the IoTdevice 620 notices that something has been placed on the windshield ofthe vehicle. In this example, the sensor of the IoT device 620 may be acamera pointing at the front windshield or may be a vibration sensorthat notices that the movement of the windshield wiper. In either case,the IoT device 620 sends out an event signal after detecting theoccurrence. Optionally, the mobile device of the owner of vehicle 602 isalso notified.

In the scenario 600, making noise or flashing lights is not going tohelp the other vehicle owners. The other vehicle owners may want to knowabout the parking attendant though. So, upon occurrence of the eventsignal by the IoT device 620, the IoT device 612 of vehicle 604 sends anotification to the mobile device of the vehicle owner. Similarly,owners of vehicles 606, 608, and 610 are notified by their mobiledevice.

Up to now, the event signal sent by the IoT device that detected anoccurrence caused geographically co-located and community-aware IoTdevices to react, shown as a response in FIG. 1, FIG. 2, and FIG. 3.There may be cases, however, where the IoT device that detects theoccurrence wants to send a response. For example, the IoT device mayinclude a microphone in which a verbal message may be broadcast.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of the method operations 700 of the smartdevice communication software of FIG. 2A, according to some embodiments.In some embodiments, the IoT devices are connected to one or more cloudservers, with the one or more servers controlling the sensors andactuators. In one embodiment, the environment involves an IoT devicethat has sensing of an object in geographic proximity to one or morecommunity-capable IoT devices, for example, the attempted vehiclebreak-in in FIG. 4 or the parking ticket issuance in FIG. 6. In a secondembodiment, the environment involves an IoT device activated by a personin geographic proximity to one or more community-capable IoT devices,for example, the use of an IoT-based panic button by a human.

For this reason, the first operation of FIG. 7 is shown as an optionaloperation. The sensor of the IoT device detects an event occurrencerelated to the object (block 702). This may be, for example, a sensordetecting a window breaking. The IoT device sends an event signal to thecloud server (block 704), to be received by the smart devicecommunication software. In addition to the window breaking scenario,this operation may describe a user depressing an IoT-based panic button.The event signal transmission may be over WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, andother communication means. The cloud server sends the response signal tobe received by one or more geographically co-located IoT devices (block706). Additionally, these devices have been pre-registered orpre-configured as community-capable, community responsive, orcommunity-aware. Non-community-capable IoT devices would not be set upto detect the response signal.

The actuators of the community-capable IoT devices that received theresponse signal would be activated (block 708). As illustrated above,the activation may mean different things, depending on the device. FIG.3 shows several different responses that may result from activation ofthe actuators. Optionally, the mobile device of the object is sent anotification by the smart device communication software (block 710). Or,the mobile device of the person who issued the panic alert is notified.As a third option, the mobile devices of the IoT devices that wereactivated are notified by the cloud server (block 712).

Finally, where a record of the incident has been made, such as when avideo or audio recording has been made, the IoT device associated withthe object may make a request for the data, whether from the cloudserver on which the smart device communication resides or from anotherserver (block 714). The smart device communication method 700 thusprovides several options for utilizing co-located IoT devices to benefitmore than just the individual owners of the devices.

FIG. 8 is a simplified illustration of an Internet of Things (IoT)network 800, according to some embodiments. The IoT network 800 includesa cloud 802, one or more servers 804, one or more IoT devices 806 thatconnect to the cloud, and one or more IoT devices 812 that connect tothe cloud through an IoT gateway 810. The cloud 802 may be the Internet,a local area network (LAN), a wide-area network (WAN), a wireless LAN(WLAN), a wireless WAN (WWAN), a proprietary network, and so on. The IoTdevices 812 interface with the cloud 802 via the IoT gateway 810. Cloudcomputing utilizes remote, networked computing resources to process,manage, and store data. These cloud resources enable IoT devices tointeract with powerful back-end analytic and control capabilities.

The IoT devices 806 and 812 may include sensors and actuators that maybe controlled by one of the servers 804. The IoT devices may includealarm systems, parking meters, traffic control lights, and so on. TheIoT devices 806 and 812, communicating through the cloud 802, may alsocommunicate with one another, with the one or more servers 804, and/orwith the IoT gateway 810, as appropriate.

The IoT device 806 and 812 may include a network interface controller(NIC) for communication through an Ethernet interface, whether with theIoT gateway 810, with one or more of the servers 804, or with other IoTdevices. The IoT devices may be part of an ad-hoc or mesh network inwhich different IoT devices communicate directly with one other. In oneexample, the mesh network communicates with the cloud 802 through theIoT gateway 810. There are protocols, such as Better Approach to MobileAd-hoc Networking (BATMAN) or optimized link state routing (OLSR), toenable this direct communication between IoT devices, although these arenon-limiting examples.

FIG. 9 is a simplified block diagram of a system 900 in which the smartdevice communication system 100 and the smart device communicationsoftware 200 operate, according to some embodiments. The IoT device 902includes a processor 906, a memory 908, storage 910, communication meansto interface with the cloud 904, such as a network interface card (NIC)928, a WWAN 932, a WLAN 930, a Bluetooth 936, a Zigbee 938, and/or aZ-wave 940, for wireless or wired connection to the cloud. As examples,the IoT device 902 may communicate with the cloud 904 using Bluetooth,Near Field Communication (NFC), Wireless Fidelity (WiFi), and so on.Because IoT devices are often free-standing in-the-field devices, theymay be powered by a battery 912.

The memory 906 is not a propagating signal divorced from the underlyinghardware of the IoT device 902 and is thus non-transitory. Thecomponents of the IoT device 902 are connected by a bus 914. Theprocessor 906, memory 908, and storage 910 may be any of a number ofdifferent types known to system design engineers. The IoT device 902 mayfurther include I/O devices 920 such as a display 922 or keyboard 924.

The bus 914 may couple the processor 906 to devices, such as sensors 916and actuators 918, which may be internal or external. The sensors 916may include but are not limited to those that monitor temperature, flow,seismic activity, pressure, motion, speed, and may also include camerasensors, traffic sensors, and so on. The actuators 918 may include butare not limited to lights, alarms, cameras, and so on.

The smart device communication system software 200 may be stored in thenon-volatile storage 910, and may be loaded into the memory 908, to bethen executed by the processor 906. The IoT device 902 may be any of avariety of monitoring or actuating devices, including, but not limitedto, a camera, an alarm device, a hand-held device, such as a smartphone, a smart television, a seismic sensor, a weather sensor, and soon.

The IoT device 902 may include any combinations of the components. Thecomponents may be implemented as integrated circuits, discreteelectronic devices, hardware, software, firmware, or a combination ofthese. The IoT device 902 may also be incorporated into a larger system.Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the components illustratedin FIGS. 1-9 described above, and the additional diagram below, may bealtered in a variety of ways. The order of the logic may be rearranged,some steps may be performed in parallel, illustrated logic may beomitted, other logic may be included, and so on.

FIG. 10 illustrates an embodiment of an exemplary computing architecture1000 comprising a computing system 1002 that may be suitable forimplementing various embodiments as previously described. In variousembodiments, the computing architecture 1000 may comprise or beimplemented as part of an electronic device. In some embodiments, thecomputing architecture 1000 may be representative, for example, of asystem that implements one or more components of the smart devicecommunication system 100 and method 700. In some embodiments, computingsystem 1002 may be representative, for example, of the mobile devicesused in implementing the smart device communication system 100 andsoftware 200. The embodiments are not limited in this context. Moregenerally, the computing architecture 1000 is configured to implementall logic, applications, systems, methods, apparatuses, andfunctionality described herein.

As used in this application, the terms “system” and “component” and“module” are intended to refer to a computer-related entity, eitherhardware, a combination of hardware and software, software, or softwarein execution, examples of which are provided by the exemplary computingarchitecture 1000. For example, a component can be, but is not limitedto being, a process running on a computer processor, a computerprocessor, a hard disk drive, multiple storage drives (of optical and/ormagnetic storage medium), an object, an executable, a thread ofexecution, a program, and/or a computer. By way of illustration, both anapplication running on a server and the server can be a component. Oneor more components can reside within a process and/or thread ofexecution, and a component can be localized on one computer and/ordistributed between two or more computers. Further, components may becommunicatively coupled to each other by various types of communicationsmedia to coordinate operations. The coordination may involve theuni-directional or bi-directional exchange of information. For instance,the components may communicate information in the form of signalscommunicated over the communications media. The information can beimplemented as signals allocated to various signal lines. In suchallocations, each message is a signal. Further embodiments, however, mayalternatively employ data messages. Such data messages may be sentacross various connections. Exemplary connections include parallelinterfaces, serial interfaces, and bus interfaces.

The computing system 1002 includes various common computing elements,such as one or more processors, multi-core processors, co-processors,memory units, chipsets, controllers, peripherals, interfaces,oscillators, timing devices, video cards, audio cards, multimediainput/output (I/O) components, power supplies, and so forth. Theembodiments, however, are not limited to implementation by the computingsystem 1002.

As shown in FIG. 10, the computing system 1002 comprises a processor1004, a system memory 1006 and a system bus 1008. The processor 1004 canbe any of various commercially available computer processors, includingwithout limitation an AMD® Athlon®, Duron® and Opteron® processors; ARM®application, embedded and secure processors; IBM® and Motorola®DragonBall® and PowerPC® processors; IBM and Sony® Cell processors;Intel® Celeron®, Core®, Core (2) Duo®, Itanium®, Pentium®, Xeon®, andXScale® processors; and similar processors. Dual microprocessors,multi-core processors, and other multi-processor architectures may alsobe employed as the processor.

The system bus 1008 provides an interface for system componentsincluding, but not limited to, the system memory 1006 to the processor1004. The system bus 1008 can be any of several types of bus structurethat may further interconnect to a memory bus (with or without a memorycontroller), a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety ofcommercially available bus architectures. Interface adapters may connectto the system bus 1008 via a slot architecture. Example slotarchitectures may include without limitation Accelerated Graphics Port(AGP), Card Bus, (Extended) Industry Standard Architecture ((E)ISA),Micro Channel Architecture (MCA), NuBus, Peripheral ComponentInterconnect (Extended) (PCI(X)), PCI Express, Personal Computer MemoryCard International Association (PCMCIA), and the like.

The system memory 1006 may include various types of computer-readablestorage media in the form of one or more higher speed memory units, suchas read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM(DRAM), Double-Data-Rate DRAM (DDRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), staticRAM (SRAM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable programmable ROM (EPROM),electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), flash memory (e.g., oneor more flash arrays), polymer memory such as ferroelectric polymermemory, ovonic memory, phase change or ferroelectric memory,silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS) memory, magnetic or opticalcards, an array of devices such as Redundant Array of Independent Disks(RAID) drives, solid state memory devices (e.g., USB memory, solid statedrives (SSD) and any other type of storage media suitable for storinginformation. In the illustrated embodiment shown in FIG. 10, the systemmemory 1006 can include non-volatile memory 1010 and/or volatile memory1012. A basic input/output system (BIOS) can be stored in thenon-volatile memory 1010.

The computing system 1002 may include various types of computer-readablestorage media in the form of one or more lower speed memory units,including an internal (or external) hard disk drive (HDD) 1014, amagnetic floppy disk drive (FDD) 1016 to read from or write to aremovable magnetic disk 1018, and an optical disk drive 1020 to readfrom or write to a removable optical disk 1022 (e.g., a CD-ROM or DVD).The HDD 1014, FDD 1016 and optical disk drive 1020 can be connected tothe system bus 1008 by a HDD interface 1024, an FDD interface 1026 andan optical drive interface 1028, respectively. The HDD interface 1024for external drive implementations can include at least one or both ofUniversal Serial Bus (USB) and IEEE 1394 interface technologies. Thecomputing system 1002 is generally is configured to implement all logic,systems, methods, apparatuses, and functionality described herein withreference to FIGS. 1-9.

The drives and associated computer-readable media provide volatileand/or nonvolatile storage of data, data structures, computer-executableinstructions, and so forth. For example, a number of program modules canbe stored in the drives and memory units 1010, 1012, including anoperating system 1030, one or more application programs 1032, otherprogram modules 1034, and program data 1036. In one embodiment, the oneor more application programs 1032, other program modules 1034, andprogram data 1036 can include, for example, the various applicationsand/or components of smart device communication system 100 and software200.

A user can enter commands and information into the computing system 1002through one or more wire/wireless input devices, for example, a keyboard1038 and a pointing device, such as a mouse 1040. Other input devicesmay include microphones, infra-red (IR) remote controls, radio-frequency(RF) remote controls, game pads, stylus pens, card readers, dongles,finger print readers, gloves, graphics tablets, joysticks, keyboards,retina readers, touch screens (e.g., capacitive, resistive, etc.),trackballs, trackpads, sensors, styluses, and the like. These and otherinput devices are often connected to the processor 1004 through an inputdevice interface 1042 that is coupled to the system bus 1008, but can beconnected by other interfaces such as a parallel port, IEEE 1394 serialport, a game port, a USB port, an IR interface, and so forth.

A monitor 1044 or other type of display device is also connected to thesystem bus 1008 via an interface, such as a video adaptor 1046. Themonitor 1044 may be internal or external to the computing system 1002.In addition to the monitor 1044, a computer typically includes otherperipheral output devices, such as speakers, printers, and so forth.

The computing system 1002 may operate in a networked environment usinglogical connections via wire and/or wireless communications to one ormore remote computers, such as a remote computer 1048. The remotecomputer 1048 can be a workstation, a server computer, a router, apersonal computer, portable computer, microprocessor-based entertainmentappliance, a peer device or other common network node, and typicallyincludes many or all of the elements described relative to the computingsystem 1002, although, for purposes of brevity, only a memory/storagedevice 1050 is illustrated. The logical connections depicted includewire/wireless connectivity to a local area network (LAN) 1052 and/orlarger networks, for example, a wide area network (WAN) 1054. Such LANand WAN networking environments are commonplace in offices andcompanies, and facilitate enterprise-wide computer networks, such asintranets, all of which may connect to a global communications network,for example, the Internet.

When used in a LAN networking environment, the computing system 1002 isconnected to the LAN 1052 through a wire and/or wireless communicationnetwork interface or adaptor 1056. The adaptor 1056 can facilitate wireand/or wireless communications to the LAN 1052, which may also include awireless access point disposed thereon for communicating with thewireless functionality of the adaptor 1056.

When used in a WAN networking environment, the computing system 1002 caninclude a modem 1058, or is connected to a communications server on theWAN 1054, or has other means for establishing communications over theWAN 1054, such as by way of the Internet. The modem 1058, which can beinternal or external and a wire and/or wireless device, connects to thesystem bus 1008 via the input device interface 1042. In a networkedenvironment, program modules depicted relative to the computing system1002, or portions thereof, can be stored in the remote memory/storagedevice 1050. It will be appreciated that the network connections shownare exemplary and other means of establishing a communications linkbetween the computers can be used.

The computing system 1002 is operable to communicate with wired andwireless devices or entities using the IEEE 802 family of standards,such as wireless devices operatively disposed in wireless communication(e.g., IEEE 802.16 over-the-air modulation techniques). This includes atleast Wi-Fi (or Wireless Fidelity), WiMax, and Bluetooth™ wirelesstechnologies, among others. Thus, the communication can be a predefinedstructure as with a conventional network or simply an ad hoccommunication between at least two devices. Wi-Fi networks use radiotechnologies called IEEE 802.11x (a, b, g, n, etc.) to provide secure,reliable, fast wireless connectivity. A Wi-Fi network can be used toconnect computers to each other, to the Internet, and to wire networks(which use IEEE 802.3-related media and functions).

Various embodiments may be implemented using hardware elements, softwareelements, or a combination of both. Examples of hardware elements mayinclude processors, microprocessors, circuits, circuit elements (e.g.,transistors, resistors, capacitors, inductors, and so forth), integratedcircuits, application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), programmablelogic devices (PLD), digital signal processors (DSP), field programmablegate array (FPGA), logic gates, registers, semiconductor device, chips,microchips, chip sets, and so forth. Examples of software may includesoftware components, programs, applications, computer programs,application programs, system programs, machine programs, operatingsystem software, middleware, firmware, software modules, routines,subroutines, functions, methods, procedures, software interfaces,application program interfaces (API), instruction sets, computing code,computer code, code segments, computer code segments, words, values,symbols, or any combination thereof. Determining whether an embodimentis implemented using hardware elements and/or software elements may varyin accordance with any number of factors, such as desired computationalrate, power levels, heat tolerances, processing cycle budget, input datarates, output data rates, memory resources, data bus speeds and otherdesign or performance constraints.

One or more aspects of at least one embodiment may be implemented byrepresentative instructions stored on a machine-readable medium whichrepresents various logic within the processor, which when read by amachine causes the machine to fabricate logic to perform the techniquesdescribed herein. Such representations, known as “IP cores” may bestored on a tangible, machine readable medium and supplied to variouscustomers or manufacturing facilities to load into the fabricationmachines that make the logic or processor. Some embodiments may beimplemented, for example, using a machine-readable medium or articlewhich may store an instruction or a set of instructions that, ifexecuted by a machine, may cause the machine to perform a method and/oroperation in accordance with the embodiments. Such a machine mayinclude, for example, any suitable processing platform, computingplatform, computing device, processing device, computing system,processing system, computer, processor, or the like, and may beimplemented using any suitable combination of hardware and/or software.The machine-readable medium or article may include, for example, anysuitable type of memory unit, memory device, memory article, memorymedium, storage device, storage article, storage medium and/or storageunit, for example, memory, removable or non-removable media, erasable ornon-erasable media, writeable or re-writeable media, digital or analogmedia, hard disk, floppy disk, Compact Disk Read Only Memory (CD-ROM),Compact Disk Recordable (CD-R), Compact Disk Rewriteable (CD-RW),optical disk, magnetic media, magneto-optical media, removable memorycards or disks, various types of Digital Versatile Disk (DVD), a tape, acassette, or the like. The instructions may include any suitable type ofcode, such as source code, compiled code, interpreted code, executablecode, static code, dynamic code, encrypted code, and the like,implemented using any suitable high-level, low-level, object-oriented,visual, compiled and/or interpreted programming language.

The foregoing description of example embodiments has been presented forthe purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to beexhaustive or to limit the present disclosure to the precise formsdisclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light ofthis disclosure. It is intended that the scope of the present disclosurebe limited not by this detailed description, but rather by the claimsappended hereto. Future filed applications claiming priority to thisapplication may claim the disclosed subject matter in a differentmanner, and may generally include any set of one or more limitations asvariously disclosed or otherwise demonstrated herein.

What is claimed is:
 1. An Internet-of-Things (IoT)-capable apparatusassociated with a user, the apparatus comprising: a processor; and amemory coupled to the processor, the memory comprising instructionsconfigured to, when executed by the processor cause the processor to:detect an occurrence of an event on an object via use of a sensor;determine a community of IoT devices within a geographic radius of thesensor, wherein the community of IoT devices comprises IoT devices eachassociated with at least one user and enabled via a device setting toparticipate in a community of IoT devices associated with a plurality ofusers unconnected to the user; and send an event signal to a cloudserver, the event signal to cause a response signal to be sent to one ormore other devices within the community of IoT devices, at least one ofthe other devices to be associated with a second user different than theuser, wherein at least one actuator of the one of the other devices isto be activated in response to the device receiving the response signal.2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising instructions configuredto, when executed by the processor cause the processor to: send anotification to a mobile device in response to the detection of theoccurrence of the event, wherein the mobile device and the apparatus areassociated with the same user.
 3. The apparatus of claim 2, furthercomprising instructions configured to, when executed by the processorcause the processor to: send a data request to the cloud server; anddownload any recorded data associated with the occurrence of the event.4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the object comprises a window andthe event comprises an attempted breaking of the window.
 5. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein the object comprises a button and theevent comprises a depression of the button.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein the object comprises a door and the event comprises an attemptedbreak-in of the door.
 7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the objectcomprises a vehicle window and the event comprises a placement of aparking ticket on the vehicle window.
 8. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein the activation of the at least one actuator or the one of theother devices in the community of IoT devices is selected from a groupconsisting of: recording of a camera; locking of a door; honking of ahorn or siren; beeping of an alarm; and intermittent flashing of a floodlight.
 9. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising instructionsconfigured to, when executed by the processor cause the processor toinvoke a machine learning function to determine the presence of a userassociated with the apparatus.
 10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein theevent signal is sent over the Internet.
 11. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein the event signal is sent using Bluetooth technology.
 12. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein the event signal is sent using Near-FieldCommunication.
 13. At least one non-transitory machine-readable storagemedium comprising instructions configured to, when executed by aprocessor, cause the processor to: detect an occurrence of an event onan object via use of a sensor in proximity to the object, wherein theobject is associated with a user; determine a community of IoT deviceswithin a geographic radius of the object, wherein the community of IoTdevices comprises IoT devices each associated with at least one user andenabled via a device setting to participate in a community of IoTdevices associated with a plurality of users not associated with theuser; and send an event signal to a cloud server in response to theoccurrence of the event, wherein a response signal is sent through thecloud server to be received by one or more devices within the communityof IoT devices, at least one of the other devices to be associated witha second user different than the user, wherein at least one actuator ofthe one of the other devices is to be activated in response to thedevice receiving the response signal.
 14. The at least onenon-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 13, comprisinginstructions configured to, when executed by the processor, furthercause the processor to send a notification request to the cloud serverin response to the occurrence of the event, wherein a mobile deviceassociated with the user of the object is to be notified as a result ofthe cloud server receiving the notification request.
 15. The at leastone non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 13,comprising instructions configured to, when executed by the processor,further cause the processor to send a request for data to the cloudserver.
 16. The at least one non-transitory machine-readable storagemedium of claim 15, comprising instructions configured to, when executedby the processor, further cause the processor to download dataassociated with the occurrence of the event, if any, to a memory.
 17. Anapparatus comprising: a processor; and a memory coupled to theprocessor, the memory comprising instructions configured to, whenexecuted by the processor, further cause the processor to: receive anevent signal from a cloud server, wherein the event signal was sent byfirst device in a community of IoT devices in response to an occurrenceof an event on an object, wherein the community of IoT devices comprisesIoT devices each associated with at least one user and enabled via adevice setting to participate in a community of IoT devices associatedwith a plurality of users not associated with the user; and activate anactuator in response to the event signal, wherein the actuator is partof a second device in the community of IoT devices, the second device tobe associated with a different user than the user associated with thedevice of the first device.
 18. The apparatus of claim 17, furthercomprising instructions configured to, when executed by the processorcause the processor to: upload data from the actuator to the cloudserver.
 19. The apparatus of claim 18, further comprising instructionsconfigured to, when executed by the processor cause the processor to:send a message comprising information associated with the activation ofthe actuator to a mobile device.